German Currents: Festival of German Films

German Currents: Festival of German Films

Hosted at one of Hollywood’s most iconic venues, The Egyptian Theater, the German Currents Film Festivals brings to Los Angeles an outstanding selection of new cinematic works screening here for the first time. Now in its 7th edition this annual celebration of German-Language is co-presented
by the Goethe Institut Los Angeles and the American Cinematheque, in
cooperation with Austrian Consulate General and the Consulate General
of Switzerland; with support of German Films, Deutsche Welle (DW), The Friends of Goethe and ELMA.

The festival includes narrative feature, documentaries, shorts, and family-friendly films that form part of the 4 day celebration from October 4th-7th. One of the highlights of the program is “More Than Honey“, which was recently chosen as the Swiss entry for the Foreign Language Academy Award, read more HERE, which will be closing the festival on Monday night.

To discuss the film and interact with LA audiences some of the filmmakers will also be in attendance:

Two of the greatest minds of the 19th century, mathematician Carl Friederich Gauss (Florian David Fritz) and scientist Alexander von Humboldt
(Albrecht Abraham Schuch), dedicate their studies to measuring and comprehending the world they live in. Based on Daniel Kehlmann’s best-selling novel of
the same name, this visually stunning epic is a playful re-imagining of the great men’s lives. Humboldt, a man with a passion for global exploration, is
contrasted with Gauss, a man who experiences his world through mathematical theories and figures. Humboldt, aided by his colleague, Aimé Bonpland, travels
the globe physically engaging the world he wishes to understand, applying modern, scientific thinking to comparatively unknown regions. Though he remains
in the same destitute community for much of his life, Gauss’ interior journey of mathematical discovery proves to be just as rich and visually stunning as
Humboldt’s adventures in remote areas of the world. Fact and fiction are mixed, often to humorous effect, to chronicle the findings of two very different
men who nevertheless sought the same answers. MEASURING THE WORLD was nominated for two German Film Awards in 2013, and the film has won Best Costume
Design and Best Make-up Design awards at the 2013 Austrian Film Awards.

Jan Ole Gerster’s wry and vibrant feature debut Oh Boy, which swept the 2013 German Film Awards, paints a day in the life of Niko, a
twenty-something college dropout going nowhere fast. Niko lives for the moment as he drifts through the streets of Berlin, curiously observing everyone
around him and oblivious to his growing status as an outsider. Then on one fateful day, through a series of absurdly amusing encounters, everything
changes: his girlfriend rebuffs him, his father cuts off his allowance, and a strange psychiatrist dubiously confirms his ’emotional imbalance’. Meanwhile,
a former classmate insists she bears no hard feelings toward him for his grade-school taunts when she was “Roly Poly Julia,” but it becomes increasingly
apparent that she has unfinished business with him. Unable to ignore the consequences of his passivity any longer, Niko finally concludes that he has to
engage with life. Shot in timeless black and white and enriched with a snappy jazz soundtrack, this slacker dramedy is a love letter to Berlin and the
Generation Y experience.

Matt Sweetwood hails from the Midwest. Though he has lived in Germany for over ten years, the people and their culture remain a mystery to him. He
undertakes a last-ditch attempt to figure the place out: by exploring the heart of German culture, their beer. If he delves into their rites and rituals,
explores all the contradictions and stereotypes, will that make him, finally, a part of them? The infinite variety of beers, breweries and beer fests, the
age-old history of beer, is more overwhelming than the American ever imagined. The trail of his research leads him to places far off the beaten tourist
path, light-years away from the Oktoberfest. He encounters people whose dialect he barely understands. Amazingly, he finds that a country as small a
Germany is subdivided into a thousand different tongues and customs, with beer as the common thread. He discovers a land full of oddities and
contradictions. The Germans are deathly serious and silly at the same time, tradition-bound and weirdly visionary. Ultimately, he forms a real bond with
them, finding friends where he least expected them.

A lively German language adaptation of Mark Twain’s classic satire. Huck Finn, having found treasure with his best friend Tom Sawyer, is now chafing in the
shoes and starched shirts that come with his new wealthy lifestyle. He’d like nothing more than to kick off his shoes and run wild along the river. He gets
his chance when his drunken father (August Diehl) arrives and demands a share of Huck’s money. Huck decides to escape downriver and he brings along Jim,
the house slave who has recently discovered that he will be handed over to a slave trader. The two travel the Mississippi River on a makeshift raft, hoping
to outrun Huck’s violent father and find a place where Jim can be accepted as a free man. Twain’s timeless adventure is exuberantly brought to the screen
in a film that can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Germany (2012), 101 min. In German with English Subtitles

FILM WORKSHOPS

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 1:00 – 1:50 PM & 4:00 – 4:50 PM

Join the Echo Park Film Center for an afternoon of cinematic exploration and education with the EPFC “Filmcicle” in the courtyard of the Egyptian Theatre.
The “Filmcicle” is a bicycle powered cinema and school on 3 wheels. Using traditional analog motion picture film we encourage audience members – young and
old – to spend some time with us creating cinematic wonder.

Official selection (competition) at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, GOLD is a Western about seven German immigrants who set out in search of
gold in the backwoods of British Columbia during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Each have their motives: an older couple seeking security, a father (Lars
Rudolph) hoping to help his impoverished family, an unpleasant newspaperman (Uwe Bohm) chronicling the journey, and a mysterious packer (Marko Mandic) with
a past to outrun. The last to join is Emily Mayer (Nina Hoss), a metropolitan woman whose delicate demeanor masks a steely determination to survive.
Assembled by a deceptively confident businessman of questionable motives, the settlers must travel through a relatively uncharted stretch of Canadian
wilderness to reach their goal, the gold fields of Dawson. As the path grows more treacherous, betrayals come to light and desperate choices are made.
Following in the footsteps of McCabe and Mrs. Miller and Meek’s Cutoff, Gold is an epic that offers an unconventional take on
the well-worn Western genre.

Winner of the Jury Special Mention at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, LAYLA FROURIE is a film about Layla, who is a single mother living with
her son in Johannesburg and getting by with casual work. After training as a polygraph operator she manages to secure a job with a company specialising in
lie detectors and security. On her way to her new workplace she is involved in an accident which will fundamentally change her life. Layla becomes
entangled in a web of lies and deceit. The truth could lead to the loss of her son. For her third feature film Pia Marais – who has lived in Berlin for
many years – returned to South Africa where she grew up to make this classic thriller. She uses the genre to take a look at a country which still bears the
scars of apartheid. In this way, everyday life in South Africa enhances the tension in the screenplay which she co-wrote with Horst Markgraf. Almost
casually, Layla Fourie develops into a political thriller which takes the audience into the paranoia, fear and mistrust of a society that is still
profoundly affected by racial conflict.

Philip (Philip Hochmair) is is a young and successful actor working for the most important theatres in Vienna and Hamburg with a committed and
single-minded approach to his craft. During a season in which he is busy with a production of Buchner’s Woyzeck, Philip is visited by the elderly
Walter (Walter Saabel), who introduces himself as the uncle he’s never met. Walter is a former circus artist and the two men soon bond over stories of
their careers. These two entertainers, both at different stages in their lives, learn from each other’s experiences. As his conversations with Walter grow
more philosophical, Philip slowly emerges from his once isolated lifestyle. He is even inspired to enlist Walter’s assistance in helping a Moldavian
neighbor with an immigration issue. The actors, though not related, essentially play themselves and the largely improvised script was developed around
their personal experiences. The result is a rare onscreen friendship that feels warm and sincere. Co-directors Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel draw on their
documentary filmmaking background to create a naturalistic atmosphere in which these performances can flourish.

Winner of multiple awards, including 2013 German Film Award (Lola) for Best Documentary film, MORE THAN HONEY, directed by Oscar-nominated director Markus
Imhoof (THE BOAT IS FULL) tackles the vexing issue of why bees, worldwide, are facing extinction. With the tenacity of a man out to solve a world-class
mystery, he investigates this global phenomenon, from California to Switzerland, China and Australia. Exquisite macro-photography of the bees (reminiscent
of MICROCOSMOS) in flight and in their hives reveals a fascinating, complex world in crisis. Writes Eric Kohn in Indiewire: “Imhoof captures the breeding
of queen bees in minute detail, ventures to a laboratory to witness a bee brainscan, and discovers the dangerous prospects of a hive facing the infection
of mites. In this latter case, the camera’s magnifying power renders the infection in sci-fi terms, as if we’ve stumbled into a discarded scene from David
Cronenberg’s THE FLY.” This is a strange and strangely moving film that raises questions of species survival in cosmic as well as apiary terms.

Switzerland/Germany/Austria (2012), 90 min. In English and German w/English subtitles

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